2010s Nude Photography

Rosie Emerson, born in 1981, is a contemporary artist working almost exclusively on representing the female form. Emerson’s figures draw reference from archetypes old and new, from Artemis to the modern day super model, each solitary figure, an allegory of her own fantasy. Interested in surface, the interplay between photography and painting. Emerson’s works are playful constructs; Photography is used, not as a device for capturing reality but for creating romanticised optical illusions. Inspired by her love of theatre, performance, shrines and rituals, she uses lighting, costume, set and prop making, alongside printmaking and painting to create other worldly one off pieces. Her photography is inspired by both the drama of the baroque, and ethereal qualities of Pre Raphaelite works. Other important influences include late medieval and renaissance paintings, Japanese prints, and magical realist literature. Emerson’s screen...

Black & White photograph of a Cadillac fins Comes unframed Classic Auto photo About the Artist: Short Biography in a Nutshell: A fun journey My first fo...

This Electrifying image by D Flowers is full of fun and excitement. D Flowers is a painter and photographer at the forefront of this particular style of photography. He has been wo...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print Mounted and Framed Also available: 50x50in ed.7 Archival Pigment Print Mounted and Framed 60x60in ed.3 Archival Pigment Print Mounted and Fram...

Ralph Gibson Nude Woman Portrait Signed and Dated 2013 Dimensions: 19" x 13" Ralph Gibson was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1939. Today he lives and works in New York. He se...

Man in the Mist. Lost in thought and cloaked in a veil of mist and smoke, a young black man stands atop a fountain's pilar and ponders the world. The adjacent light post's shape ech...

Black and white photography 2/5 Hand-signed and dated by the artist Françoise Benomar “What photography has to say” " I photograph so that the favo...

Series: SHADES OF A WOMAN All available sizes and editions: 40" x 40" editions of 18 50" x 50" editions of 7 60" x 60" editions of 3 Archival Pigment Print on Fine Art Baryta paper...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print MOUNTED AND FRAMED Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

Black and white photography 2/5 Hand-signed and dated by the artist Françoise Benomar “What photography has to say” " I photograph so that the favorable idea of seeing the body aga...

Gabriel Wickbold Better naked than yours #13, 2017 32 x 32 inches 80 x 80 cm Edition of 15 47 x 47 inches 120 x 120 cm Edition of 15

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print Mounted and Framed Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

"In my works, I am fascinated to reshape existing forms, to reinvent new shapes. Underneath the surface of the ball shape of the flower, I discovered the most delicate little flowers...

Okurimono Pigment Print About the work : Shibari I is a work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips...

This Large Color Photograph by Alex Korolkovas was created in collaboration with jeweler and sculptor Jacques Jarrige for Valerie Goodman gallery. Sa...

Hand printed by artist. Taken in a homestead, Australia

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Signed and Numbered Edition: II/V Dimensions: 120 x 90 cm Cyrille Druart is a French pho...

40x40in ed.18 Archival Pigment Print Mounted and Framed Also available in 48x48in and 60x60in. Limited edition signed print by Guido Argentini. Guido Argentini was born in Florenc...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Ghost Souls III • 2022 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 different sizes. A collaboration of photographer Angelika Büttner and visual artist Laure Laferrerie. All prints are numbered and ...

D Flowers is a painter and photographer at the forefront of this particular style of photography. He has been working in this style for many years and is a master of his technique. I...

Black and white photography 2/5 Hand-signed and dated by the artist Françoise Benomar “What photography has to say” " I photograph so that the favorable idea of seeing the body aga...

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: V Dimensions: 90 x 120 cm Cyrille Druart is a French photograph and architect,...

Edition 1 of 3, 2 APs Large size: 15.25 x 36 inches STATEMENT: e2, a collaboration between New Orleans artists Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien, re-imagines iconic images from t...

Jimmy Nelson Nyerere, Loingo, Lewangum & Lepokodou Kaisut Desert, Kenya Chromogenic print on dibond. 80 x 120 cm (107.5 x 147 cm). Signed in felt tip pen as well as detailed notes on the subject and on the edition on an artist's label affixed to the reverse of the mount. Edition 3/6 Framed. Accompanied by photographer's certificate, dated 18.09.2015 Literature: Jimmy Nelson, Before they pass away, Kempen 2013, ill. pp. 218 Jimmy Nelson (Sevenoaks, Kent, 1967) started working as a photographer in 1987. Having spent 10 years at a Jesuit boarding school in the North of England, he set off on his own to traverse the length of Tibet on foot. The journey lasted a year and upon his return his unique visual diary, featuring revealing images of a previously inaccessible Tibet, was published to wide international acclaim. Soon after, he was commissioned to cover a variety of culturally newsworthy themes, ranging from the Russian involvement in Afghanistan and the ongoing strife between India and Pakistan in Kashmir to the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia. In early 1994 he and his Dutch wife produced Literary Portraits...

Ghost Souls II • 2022 • Edition of 18 prints in 32 different sizes. A collaboration of photographer Angelika Büttner and visual artist Laure Laferrerie. All prints are numbered and ...

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/V It is the last available. Dimensions: 120 x 90 cm Cyrille Druart is a Fre...

Ed. 1/5, includes white frame. With his passion for formal technique and composition, internationally renowned photographer Nathan Coe’s works exude a deep reverence for the classic...

Gabriel Wickbold Better naked than yours #5, 2017 32 x 32 inches 80 x 80 cm Edition of 15 47 x 47 inches 120 x 120 cm Edition of 15

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/VIII Dimensions: 90 x 60 cm Signed and numbered Cyrille Druart is a French photograph and architect, a book abo...

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/VIII Dimensions: 90 x 60 cm Signed and numbered Cyrille Druart is a French photograph and architect, a book abo...

Fawn at Dawn photograph. Golden light pours into the scene and drenches a classic bronze statue with flowers evoking a a timelessness. Signed,...

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/VIII Dimensions: 90 x 60 cm Signed and numbered Cyrille Druart is a French photograph and architect, a book abo...

Black and white original photography by Cyrille Druart. Edition: I/V It is the last available. Dimensions: 120 x 90 cm Cyrille Druart is a Fre...

Ed. 1/7, includes white frame. With his passion for formal technique and composition, internationally renowned photographer Nathan Coe’s works exude a deep reverence for the classic...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Ed. 1/5, includes white frame. As part of Coe's newest 2024 series photographed at the Norton Gallery of Art in Palm Beach, this brand new body of work builds upon Coe's signature s...

Ed. 1/20, unframed print. Photographed in the picturesque "SoSo" neighborhood of West Palm Beach, "Tis the Season" is Nathan Coe's newest release for Christmas 2023. This work is av...

Name of the work: Red fawn Date: 2017 Support / Technique: Color pigment printing on art paper. Size: 28x42 cm Description: Digital color photography Signature: Signed and numbered o...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Ghost Souls III • 2022 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 different sizes. A collaboration of photographer Angelika Büttner and visual artist Laure Laferrerie. All prints are numbered and ...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Ghost Souls II • 2022 • Edition of 18 prints in 32 different sizes. A collaboration of photographer Angelika Büttner and visual artist Laure Laferrerie. All prints are numbered and ...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Karla HIRALDO VOLEAU (*1992, French-Dominican) Torso de Dimas, 2019 Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo-rag paper 52 x 39 cm (20 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.) Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's...

© Katie Eleanor, IV., Eye Infection As A Result Of Ingesting Poison Series: Saint Wanderer's Hospital, 2015 Archival Pigment Print of the hand Coloured Photograph on cotton fine art paper, custom frame 7 1/2 × 5 7/10 in 19 × 14.5 cm (unframed print) 35 x 30.5 cm (Framed : Museum mount-board, antireflective art glass in hardwood custom frame) Edition of 15 Framed or Unframed option available Saint Wanderer’s Hospital depicts a fictional tale birthed from the artist’s inherent need to find splendour in the idea of sickness. Rooted first from her own words, Katie used the idea of illustrating as a form of personal art therapy by immersing herself in the realm of the otherworldly characters. Every aspect of each scene was created by Katie alone, from building and designing the sets to printing and hand-colouring the final images. In this act, over the year long course of the projects creation, the artist managed to make certain turmoil in her personal life bearable. In the world of the hospital, the artist adapts the role of medical photographer – creating accurate portraits of each character’s condition as a record for the hospitals future use. The final series comprises of 8 ‘specimen cased...

Brigitte LUSTENBERGER (*1969, Switzerland) Not titled yet, from the series 'A Gaze of One's Own‘, 2021 Silver gelatin print on Baryta paper Sheet 70 x 70 cm (27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.) Edition of 5, plus 2 AP; Edn. no. 1/5 print only Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Brigitte studied at Zurich University and received her MA in Social and Photo History in 1996. In the following years she established herself as an fine art photographer. She moved to New York and received her MFA in Fine Art Photography and Related Media at Parsons The New School of Design in 2007. The main issues in her works lie in her interest in the study of the gaze, the interplay between absence and presence in a photographic image, and the fact that the reading of a photograph is most often triggered by a collective memory. She explores the media itself and its close connection to themes like decay, memory, death and transitoriness. Brigitte Lustenberger has shown nationally and internationally in both solo and group shows. She had Solo Shows at the Museée de l’Elysée in Lausanne/Switzerland, at Walter Keller’s Scalo Gallery in Zurich and New York, at Le Maillon...

Lina Scheynius (*1981 Sweden) Untitled (Calendar), 2012 Fibre-based silver gelatin print, hand proofed by the artist. Image 16 x 24 cm (6 1/4 x 9 1/2 in.) ...

Photography printed on fine art paper Hand-signed and numbered 1/5 on the back by the artist

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West.` This exhibition explores the ever-worsening forest fires due to climate change. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology`, was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris Photo (Scout Gallery, London). In 2015, my series `Paradise Lost`(containing three of my main environmental series) toured between three large museums in China. My other environmental work has been nominated for the annual Prix Pictet Award twice, with my series, `Barentsburg` and `Shadow Within`, for both Earth and Power themes. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology` was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris photo (through Scout Gallery, London). My work has been shown in numerous museums, including a symposium at Johnson Museum, N.Y., was included in traveling exhibitions with WHATCOM (Museum of Washington) with the exhibition `Vanishing Ice`, as well as a two-year museum tour in China environmental issues with Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing and the Norwegian Embassy. Publications/books include `Vanishing Ice`and `Altered Landscape` (Nevada Museum of Art), including purchased work for their collection at Center for Art and Environment. Selected exhibitions CV: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) - Curriculum Vitae 2021 `As far as my Eye can Sea – The Expedition Exhibition` Rev Ocean, Bomuldsfabrikken Kunsthall, Arendal `Facing Fire`, Collaborative, UCR ARTS:California Museum of Photography Continuation `Death of a Mountain`/ In;Human Nature`, Buer Gallery, Oslo 2020 `Facing Fire`, Collaborative, UCR ARTS:California Museum of Photography 2019 `Metafysica`, `Residence of Impermanence`,collaborative, Haugar Kunstmuseum, Vestfold `Residence of Impermanence`, Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm. Solo `Helt Dyrisk` Residence of Impermanence`, collaborative, Preus Museum, Horten `Residence of Impermanence`, Galleri Fineart, Oslo. Solo 2017 `Shadow Within/Rituals` Gulden Kunstverk, Drammen. Solo Commission, MAAEMO restaurant. `In;Human Nature` `Mirror,Mirror` Hosfelt Gallery, San.Fran. Collaborative w/Ed Ruscha, Adam Fuss, Liliana Porter 2016 `In;Human Nature`, TM51 Gallery, Oslo. Solo Fotofever/ParisPhoto, Louvre, Paris Cornette de Saint Cyr, Auction, Paris 2015 Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing, China. `Paradise Lost` . `Arctic Technology/Barentsburg`/ Shadow Within. Solo Fotofever (ParisPhoto), Artistics Art Gallery, Paris. Collaborative How Art Museum, Wenzhou, China. `Paradise Lost` Arctic Technology/Barentsburg/Shadow Within. Solo Redtory, Guangzhou, China. `Paradise Lost` Arctic Technology/Barentsburg/Shadow Within. Solo 2014 Fineart Gallery, Oslo `Shadow Within` 2010-2013 / `Darkness Burns Bright` 2013/2014. Solo Beyond Earth Art • (contemporary artists and the environment) Johnson Museum of Art, New York. Shadow Within. Collaborative (incl. Olafur Eliasson, Edward Burtynsky, Mathew Brandt, Yun-Fei Ji amongst others) The El Paso Museum of Art, Texas. `Arctic Technology`. Collaborative Glenbow Museum, Alberta. `Arctic Technology`. Collaborative LIFF (Lofoten International Photofestival) `Shadow Within` w/speaking. Solo 2013 Nominated for the Prix Pictet Award/ `Shadow Within`. Hosfelt Gallery, San.Fran. USA. `Shadow Within`. Solo Accompanied by Call of the Wild`( Joseph Beuys, Ed Ruscha, Patricia Piccinini and Alan Rath...

Nobuyoshi ARAKI (*1940, Japan) Love-Dream, Love-Nothing #087, 2018 gelatin silver print 50.8 x 60 cm (20 x 23 5/8 in.) Print only – Nobuyoshi Araki Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is ...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x...

Villa Cetinale, Siena, Italy, May 2012 A moment at a storied property where centuries of history pile on Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary ...

Nobuyoshi ARAKI (*1940, Japan) Love-Dream, Love-Nothing #010, 2018 gelatin silver print 50.8 x 60 cm (20 x 23 5/8 in.) Print only – Nobuyoshi Araki Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is a Tokyo-based photographer. Araki completed his studies at Chiba University’s Department of Photography, Painting and Engineering with a focus on the study of film and photography. His photographic project Satchin earned him the prestigious Taiyo Award in 1964, shortly after he had joined the advertising agency Dentsu, where he worked until 1972. At Dentsu he met his wife Yoko, to whom he paid homage in Sentimental Journey, a photographic record of their honeymoon published in 1971. Eros and thanatos (sex and death) has been a central theme in Araki’s work; an abiding fascination with female genitalia and women’s bodies in Japanese bondage, flowers, food, his cat, faces and Tokyo street...

In this picture the artist approaches the themes of women, nudity, sensuality using feathers, gold and a frame hold by a sexy model: A wink to musical comedies, theaters, illusion and show girls under a benevolent Buddha. The artwork of Jacques Beneich is an ever renewed exploration of his passion for fashion photography, black and white movies, and music, re-visited with an explosion of colors as a tribute to life. While working as a fashion photographer with the most well known magazines and companies, Jacques Beneich started working as a portraitist. In 1989 he signed one of the most famous series of portraits of some of the greatest jazz and blues musicians...

Nobuyoshi ARAKI (*1940, Japan) Love-Dream, Love-Nothing #014, 2018 gelatin silver print 50.8 x 60 cm (20 x 23 5/8 in.) Print only – Nobuyoshi Araki Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is ...

Nobuyoshi ARAKI (*1940, Japan) Love-Dream, Love-Nothing #042, 2018 gelatin silver print 60 x 50.8 cm ( 23 5/8 x 20 in.) Print only – Nobuyoshi Araki Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is...